Builders shouldn’t have to compromise in order to get long spans and industry-leading strength. To wade through the technical details like deflection and E-values, sit down and hear directly from Dan Cheney, our Director of Engineering. Watch the video or read the Q&A to learn more.

Q&A Session — Versa-Lam LVL Beams & Headers:

Greg Wells, Wood Products Director of Marketing: Dan, thanks for joining us. Let’s dig into Versa-Lam^® LVL beams and headers. We’ve been making those for a long time. We have some advantages in the marketplace. So, can you talk about our products a little bit and some of the advantages that our beams offer?

Dan Cheney, Wood Products Director of Engineering: Yes, certainly. Versa-Lam is a product that’s used mainly in residential construction over window and door openings and garage door headers. The thing to pay attention to is the strength of the product in design. You don’t want any excessive deflection over any of those openings that may result in cracking of the drywall or sticking of doors and whatnot. And so, strength and stiffness are paramount in the design of our products.

GW: So, you talk about that and strength and stiffness. We see E-value, can you talk about that? Is there like a quick definition of what that means and why it’s important?

DC: Yeah really E-value is just a ratio of how much deflection you get in a beam compared to how much load that’s on it.

GW: I believe in the marketplace, we have the highest E-value, is that correct?

DC: We do our Versa-Lam and goes up to a 2.3E grade. E-Value is based on the grade of the veneers that we use to manufacture the product, and we use some of the highest quality veneers in the marketplace.

GW: So high quality veneers lead to a high quality, higher value beam and header?

DC: Correct.

GW: So overall, there’s a lot of different products available. Why would somebody want to use Versa-Lam LVL?

DC: So, our products are not only top of the line structurally—it’s the services that we offer—our proprietary software, our proprietary design, our proprietary literature that backs up the design of our products.

GW: Yeah. And with that said, I think you have a team of engineers that are also available to help?

DC: We do, so spread across the U.S, west to east and Canada. We have product support engineers who provide help to builders during the construction process.

GW: What are the benefits that it provides in residential or multifamily builds?

DC: Well, Versa-Lam is part of a system, as you know, and our I-joists and LVL offering are specifically designed to work with one another. So, as you do your layouts, the beam depth match between Versa-Lam and I-joists.

GW: So essentially leads to more solid, consistent floors with fewer squeaks and fewer callbacks. Red tags – no builder wants to red tag people slowing down their job, right? The delays cost money day in and day out, and that’s a big thing that they want to avoid. And I think with our products that it does that.

DC: It does, certainly.

GW: One time, believe it or not, I was helping my brother remodel his house and he used a solid sawn beam, we put that in, and within about two weeks, that beam twisted and it was about an inch to two inches of how much it actually twisted and he had to do some shimmying and adjusting in his wall. With Versa-Lam do you ever see that?

DC: The phenomenon that you’re talking about is due to moisture content. And so typically the typical moisture content for solid-sawn beam is up around 16 to 19%. Versa-Lam LVL is made at a much lower moisture content, around 5 to 6%. And therefore, there’s no moisture to drive out and the product stays stable in service.

GW: Generally speaking, what’s the additional strength that Versa-Lam has over, say, solid-sawn lumber?

DC: Yeah. Usually. depends on which design you’re looking at. We have one and a half to two times the amount of strength of, say a SPF lumber that might be used on the jobsite versus, say a 2.1 or 2.3E Versa-Lam.

GW: For those who may not know, SPF is?

DC: Spruce Pine Fir.

GW: I know we have manufacturing facilities in the West and the East that both make Versa-Lam LVL. I see with the samples you have behind you they are different colors. Why is that?

DC: Mainly the manufacturing in the facility in the West, utilizes Douglas Fir resource. In the East, we use Southern Yellow Pine and, in the East, we coat the product because of the propensity of the Southern Yellow Pine to absorb moisture.

GW: So that allows for the products to perform on the jobsite?

DC: Correct.

GW: Dan again, you provided a tremendous amount of information. That’s very helpful. Really appreciate it. We have additional resources on our website that provide a lot of helpful information as well. You can review them by visiting: https://www.bc.com/resources/.